Federal Judge Buys Drugs for a Stripper; Plans to Plead Guilty

If nothing else, this blog title should help generate web-traffic to the Radlaw website.

Unfortunately, the title of this post has more truth to it than we would all hope.CNN is reporting that a federal judge in Georgia was arrested for purchasing drugs for a stripper friend.You can view CNN’s article at http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/11/18/georgia.judge.arrested/index.html.Apparently, the federal judge plans to plead guilty to: (1) a felony charge of aiding and abetting a felon’s possession of marijuana and cocaine; (2) a misdemeanor charge of conversion of government property; and (3) a misdemeanor charge possession of roxycodone.

We post about this issue, not because we handle a large amount of criminal matters, but due to the fact we place a substantial amount of trust into our judges.As lawyers, we expect our judges to listen to the arguments, sift through facts and follow the law.Clients, often want judges to do “what is fair” (the “what is fair” idea will be the subject of an entirely different blog post).

Around the greater Sacramento area, most of the judges that we come across are very conscientious and dedicated people.However, this judge’s actions show us that judges can make mistakes, exercise poor judgment and be convicted of felonies.Sadly, there are stories of judges who exhibited worse behavior.

Ultimately, every litigant controls their own case.And at some point during the course of the litigation, they are going to have to ask themselves, regardless of how strong their case is, can they trust the judge and jury to do the right thing.It needs to be part of the cost-benefit analysis that goes into any settlement discussion.